labor and expense should be cheerfully bestowed by the publisher of an edition so important in itself, and so abundantly profitable to him, as the work under review. We beg leave to remind him of the following sentences in the advertisement, which accompanied the first number.

"As, however, all European publica tions are susceptible of amendment and addition in those parts, at least, which relate to the United States, the American editor has engaged, in the various departments of science and literature, the assistance of gentlenen, whose talents and celebrity do honor to their country, and will essentially enrich this great and important work.

"To the article American Biography, which has been very greatly not to say entirely neglected in all preceding works of the kind, a proper attention will be paid in the present."

These promises we could not but recollect with pain on finding that nothing is said on the culture of Cotton, a subject which might undoubtedly be treated satisfactorily by many gentlemen in the southern states; or on the cause of the astonishing increase of our exportations of this article within the last ten years, a cause not only honora ble to Mr. Whitney, the inventor of the machine for cleaning cotton, but amazingly productive of national wealth. According to the tables from the English edition, it seems that in the year 1799, there were imported into London and Liverpool from the United States, about 24,000 bales of cotton of 300 pounds each; and that in 1806, these importations had increased to 105,000, more than half of all the cotton brought to England that year. The great cause of this increase is the possession of Mr. Whitney's ma

chine by the planters in the southern states. So important is this invention, that, as we are informed from good authority, four times as much cotton can be raised now, in many parts of Georgia and the Carolinas, as could have been raised with the same labor before the invention. In a cause decided in the circuit court of the Unit ed States, between Mr. Whitney and the violators of his patent, judge Johnson, in giving the opinion of the court, declared, that this machine had added one hundred millions of dollars to the value of the single state of Georgia; and that he could prove this assertion to any man's satisfaction by arithmetical cal. culation. Yet this invention al. most unparalleled in its consequences, is not even mentioned by the American publisher. Nor have we found any reference to any other subsequent article, for further information. The least that a regard to propriety would have required in this place, is, we think, an authentic and full ac count of the culture of Cotton, of its preparation for market, and of Mr. Whitney's machine,

with a delineation of it on a plate.

Under the word COVENANT, in Theology, the English editor seems to deny that " a constitu. tion, such as that which some divines have supposed to be the covenant with Adam, whereby all mankind should become obnoxious to eternal misery for the transgression of one head, is consistent with divine justice." The denial is not direct in terms; but the whole paragraph taken together a mounts to a denial. The Amer

common

ican editors insert a few sentences to correct what may be erroneous in the article.

It is not surprising that those who do not believe in the atonement of Christ should reject the doctrine of the fall of Adam and its consequences. These main truths of the Holy Scriptures must be received or denied together. But in a most unbecoming employment are those engaged, who undertake to decide by their own powers of reasoning, what proper, and what improper, to be done by the infinite Jehovah. In such presumption we beg to have no participation.

is

No other article in this number has received additions worthy of mention, except that of Cow POX, which is described as having pervaded nearly the whole of North America.

*The work referred to by our respected correspondent, has already made its appearance, not indeed under the original title of "Religion without Cant," which would probably have excited alarm in the Christian public, but under the more specious title of "A general View of the Doctrines of Christianity." In the preface, however, the public are advertized, that, "the work is compiled principally from a work of the Rev. Robert Fellowes, entitled "Religion without Cant." The republication, therefore, of the review of the original work, from the Christian Observer, may still be proper

From the Christian Observer.

Religion without Cant; or a Preservative against Lukewarmness and Intolerance, Fanaticism, Superstition, and Impiety. By ROBERT FELLOWES, A. M. of St. Mary Hall, Oxford, Curate of Harbury, Warwickshire. 8vo. 8s. London. White. 1801.

WE have already had occasion to introduce this author to our readers as the writer of a pamphlet, entitled The Anti-Calvinist; wherein he inculcated doctrines diametrically repugnant to the word of God, and to the spirit and letter of the Articles of and useful, in reference to the present compilation, which, though purged of some of the offensive and ridiculous, not to say impious, passages of the original work, retains the essence of its poison. We the more readily comply with the request of X. at the present time, because the republication, either entire, or in a garbled, and disguised form, of works of the general character of Mr. Fellowes' "Religion without Cant," has, in this vicinity, become an affair of concert and system. As the Socinian host in this country seem fond of appearing in the field of religious controversy in the borrowed armour of their brethren in Great Britain, they will not complain, if they are met by us with the same weapons of defence, which have been so ably and successfully employed against the same attacks of their brethren on the other side of the Atlantic. Beside, we think it desirable, that our readers should know in what light this description of Christians, who have but recently made their appearance in this country, are regarded by those in Great Britain, who are engaged in the same general cause with ourselves. Especially do we deem it important that the public should be early apprized of what kind of books, some in and around our capital have compiled and "designed for the edification of families more especially, and recommended to them as a valuable manual for the instruction of Children."

We were sorry to see the name of Mr. Etheridge, from whose press so many wholesome books have issued, prefixed to this insidious work. We presume be must have been deceived by its specious title, as others probably will be. Editors.

our church. The main design of the present work appears to be, that of giving a more particular and labored representation of those doctrines; and of thus filling up those outlines of heterodoxy, which were merely sketched in the former publication.

These two works correspond also in another particular; they both abound in that species of cheap and convenient abuse, which consists in using hard names and coarse epithets, with out being at the trouble of shewing the applicability of either. In this circumstance, the work now before us rather exceeds its predecessor; and the flowers of Billingsgate (as they are denominated by a writer in the AntiJacobin Review) which appeared to be just budding in the AntiCalvinist, present themselves full blown in this later production. Among the many false doctrines which Mr. Fellowes maintains, there is no one which he is more dogmatical in asserting, than that of the gospel being nothing more than a rule of life. With this doctrine the whole spirit and language of the present publication accords. It is a doctrine which has been raked

up from among the dregs of Socinianism; which, if followed through its consequences, would bring us to the very threshold of infidelity; and which, in its simplest form, possesses a direct and positive tendency to paganize Christianity. It is, however, a doctrine which has no chance of being adopted by any persons, who, to a tolerable acquaintance with the sacred Scriptures, add a cordial belief of their truth. Its falsehood will be detected,

without any effort of examina. tion, by all who consider the gospel in that light, in which St. Paul viewed it, when he declared, that "the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation unto every one that believeth."

In the preface which Mr. Fellowes has prefixed to his work, there is one passage, which it would be highly improper to pass without some notice. We do not mean that, in which he supposes a connexion between Christian benevolence and a good dinner ; for we believe that the idea of our being feasted into philan. thropy will rather awaken the mirth, than offend the feelings of the reader. The passage to which we refer, occurs in the 19th page, where Mr. Fellowes having oc casion to mention the act of adul tery, expresses it, not in such terms as mark the criminality of the deed, but in such as are ordinarily employed to describe it, by the most light minded among the vulgar.

A considerable part of the work which we are considering, is of a polemical cast; and the object of attack appears to be twofold. On some occasions Mr. Fellowes assembles a hideous group of what he calls the fanatics, to whom he ascribes, ad libitum, a plentiful portion of absurdity, which he seriously and triumphantly sets himself to answer. On other occasions he takes a higher aim, and attempts no less than to overthrow some of those doctrines which have been heretofore considered as essential and fundamental parts of Christianity; which have been embraced and maintained by the wisest and best of men; but which Mr. Fellowes happening

to dislike, condemns as false in themselves and immoral in their tendency, and which he, therefore, labors per fas atque per nefas, to discredit and destroy. In his assault on the fanatics, we should feel no difficulty in unreservedly wishing him success, if the weapons which he brandishes were better suited to the hand of a Christian minister; and we should, moreover, be ready to commence hostilities ourselves against the fanatics whom he has described, if we knew where to find them. Where Mr. Fellowes discovered them he has not informed us, and, therefore, we can only wish, that if his chastisement can possibly prove beneficial, it may speedily reach them; although of its ben. efiting them, we, ourselves, have no expectation, since, from Mr. Fellowes' description, they appear to be among the number of either the incurably idiotic, or the irrecoverably insane. Of this last circumstance our read. ers will judge, from the few fol. lowing extracts from Mr. Fel. lowes' account of them :"The fanatics make even religion itself the foundation of unrighteous. ness." (p. 4.) "They make holiness to consist more in turbulence of sensation, than in rectitude of action." (p. 7.)— "They make the delirium of sensation a substitute for integrity of character;" (p. 27.) and yet, strange inconsistency in. deed!"make great pretensions to superior sanctity." (p. 29.) "They throw wide the gates of heaven to the sinner, and shut them against the righteous ;" and "with them salvation depends upon the impulses of feelings." (p. 51.) They ascribe to

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VOL. II. New Series.

faith a power, superseding the necessity of instruction and the use of inquiry." (p. 97.)— "They confine the seat and habitation of faith, the bounds of its existence, and sphere of its influence, to the sensations, within whose gaseous atmosphere they circumscribe its power, and to whose invisible operations they restrict its evidence." (p. 120.) -They feign that "man's depravity is incurable ;" and "represent God as angry with us, for no other reason than because we are born." (p. 151.)-They hold that grace is often withheld from the contrite, and often lavishly accorded to the hypocrite." (p. 189.)-They "confine the agency of grace within the volatile gas of the sensa tions." (p. 191.)—And, lastly, (to complete the picture) we are assured, that "the fanatic puts the victims of his rage to every torture, which he can con. trive in this world, and then breathes fervent wishes to heaven for their eternal damnation in the next!" (p. 130.)

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Of this delineation of fanati cism, we may now take our leave for the present; and proceed to the important task of noticing the attack which Mr. Fellowes has made on what we consider, and what our church has ever held, to be among the essential doctrines of the gospel of Christ.

The doctrine of original or birth sin is pronounced by Mr. Fellowes to be totally false. We pretend not to add to the author. ities and arguments by which this doctrine has been, and still may be proved to be true. We shall, therefore, for the present, only trouble Mr. Fellowes with a request, that he will attentively

Ꭱ

consider these two practical questions-How can any man, with a pure conscience and an upright mind, declare in the sanctuary, in the presence, and in the administration of the ordinance of God, that all men are conceived and born in sin," when he himself, at that very moment, is persuaded, that all men are born innocent and upright? and how can he in that same ordinance, and on his knees before that same God, who seeth the heart and abhorreth iniquity, address a prayer to him, that he would grant to the infant, whom he is about to baptize, "remission of his sins by spiritual regeneration," when he, at the same time, believes, that the infant neither wants such remission, nor is capable of such regeneration? It may also be useful to consider, how far it is consistent with that morality, for the interests of which Mr. Fellowes professes so much zeal, that he should instruct the children of his parish in a catechism, which affirms, that we are "born in sin, the children of wrath," when he thinks, and publicly declares, that such an affirmation is a falsehood; and not merely that it is a falsehood, but that it is such an one as is of the very worst moral tendency.

Mr. Fellowes talks much of the dishonesty and falsehood of the fanatics. But is he not apprehensive, that if any one of them, who retains any portion of his wits, should read the work be`fore us, and compare some passages of it with others in the Common Prayer Book, he would find materials for a severe and irresistible retaliation?

Mr. Fellowes has discovered,

that the Ninth Article of our church is not very favorable to his sentiments on the subject of original sin; and he even confesses that it in some degree sanctions this doctrine; but adds, that "this article admits of an explanation that will entirely do away the mischievousness of the doctrine." He also says. (p. 33.) "Though the doctrine should be more expressly authorized by the Articles than it appears to me to be, yet it cannot well be called the doctrine of the church of England, when it is not the doctrine of the majority of the members, who

compose that church." 66 Again, When we wish to ascertain the true doctrine and belief of the church of England, we are not to inquire so much what was the doctrine and belief of its clergy in past ages, as what is the doctrine and belief of the clergy, or the church, at the present day. That which was the doctrine and belief of the clergy in past ages, was the doctrine and belief of the church in their time; and that which is the doctrine and belief of the clergy in this age, is the doctrine and belief of the church in our time."-Again, "As the majority of the living members, and particularly the most learn. ed, upright, and judicious mem bers of the church of England, constitute the church of En. gland,* they may, without for

*We were taught just before, that the England. Now we are told, that the clergy at large constitute the church of majority of the living members, and par ticularly the most learned, upright, and land, constitute that church! If the lat judicious members of the church of Engter of these contradictory opinions be admitted, it will be necessary for a conscientious candidate for ordination, who wishes to subscribe the Articles in the sense